My Bodyguard & I
by Opal Theory
Summary: When Heiress Hyuuga Hinata receives a kidnapping threat from an unknown source, she knew she needed a bodyguard. When rebel Uchiha Sasuke finds himself down on luck and money, he knew he needed a job. Breach of privacy never looked this good. SasuHina.
1. What Everyone Wants

**A/N: **Hi everyone! It's been a while, I know. :) Try 4 years, huh? I'm terribly sorry for the MAJOR hiatus on How to Be A Lady. Honestly, a lot have changed since then and I'm honestly wondering how to continue the story because the way I write has changed so drastically since then. I'm hoping any followers of How to be A Lady will forgive me for my humongous writer's block. But anyhow, this is a new story I have been working on. It's been a while since I've watched 'Naruto', but a sudden encounter wit the first episode of the series suddenly spurred me on to write this idea as a fanfiction. It's a love story, as if it's not obvious enough in the summary.. And to be frank, I'm a sucker for rom-coms. Especially if it involves my two most favourite characters in Naruto universe, Sasuke and Hinata! :D So without further adieu, I present to you 'My Bodyguard & I.' I hope you guys enjoy it!

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_Summary: When Heiress Hyuuga Hinata receives a kidnapping threat from an unknown source, she knew she needed a bodyguard. _

_ When rebel Uchiha Sasuke finds himself down on luck and money, he knew he needed a solid job. _

Breach of privacy never looked **this good**.

**Chapter One**

If there was one thing in life that Hyuuga Hinata was not sure of, it surely wasn't herself. She could vie that she knew exactly who she was, who some individuals -with whom she was not even acquainted with- perceived she was, her likes and dislikes, her strengths, and with more sense of awareness than one should have about the matter, her weaknesses.

At this point of her life, Hinata is 25 years old. And yes, single. But not necessarily _miserable._ Contrary to popular belief, she does not have 27 cats, or a general hatred for the male species, and neither is she graying, wrinkling, or sagging in any way. Like any other young, thriving and successful woman her age, trying to survive in the cruel world they live in would prove to be much difficult. Frankly, she just hasn't got the time to deal with romance. At least that's what she told herself.

Hinata despised awkward conversations, being pushed into awkward situations, and being awkward in general. But due to awkwardness being more like second nature to her, she hopes to see the day when she finally will make good friends with it. She is still waiting for that said day.

And unlike most of her graceful, almost feline-like female counterparts around her age, she had as much grace and felicity as that of an elephant tip-toeing on a tight rope. More than once, she had toppled over when she was merely standing upright. This usually happened when she dons any sort of high heels. And after these incidents was when she usually blamed her general instability due to her weak ankles, wobbly knees, small impish feet, and any body part she felt was too small or fragile. Due to this, she has more than occasionally opted for ballerina flats than stilettos.

However self-degrading one would think her to be, Hyuuga Hinata was more than ordinary in the looks department. Her two best friends would constantly try to convince her that she was attractive, no doubt one of their many combined efforts to nudge her back to what they call 'the dating game'. But by no means were they being untruthful. Hinata had soft features. Nothing overly beautiful like the faces you see on a magazine, and yet far too superior to be considered plain. In possession of big, opal hued eyes, full pink lips and a tendency to blush whenever she felt shy or uncomfortable, one of her best friends, Ino, would often remark that she was "Rocking the doe-eyed look".

There were other references made though, somewhere along the lines of 'nymph' and 'school girl' but to Hinata, all remarks fell on death ears. Her thick, midnight-blue hair reaches just past her shoulder-blades, forming soft curls that framed her face as they settled in place. She also had a thick fringe that to her, made her feel secure when she peered up at people from under it. At 5'3", Hinata was the epitome of petite. It was undeniable that Hyuuga Hinata was attractive.

It was a pity that she did not see herself that way.

All in all, Hinata was convinced that she was sure of herself. But if there was one thing in her entire 25 years of existence that she was not sure of, it was not her future (she decided that the future will play out itself, just like it always has been), her love life (or lack of), or whatever matters that most people would be worried about.

But alas, it was how to behave on a blind date.

And that was exactly what Hinata found herself trying -failingly- to survive for the past half hour.

She smiled politely at the man sitting in front of her, his face gloomily illuminated by the candle placed in between them. The restaurant they were in, a fancy joint that was much too far from her apartment, was so packed with people that if Hinata chose to spread her arms, she would either knock out the broad sitting on her right that was practically eating her boyfriend's face off or the elderly man on her left, staring lecherously at the buxom blond across him who could easily pass off as his great, _great_ granddaughter. The restaurant's lighting was also too dark for her taste. Perhaps the manager decided that it would be more romantic if one could not see their significant other during dinner.

Nevertheless, her eyes were hurting. And the sickly scent coming off of the candle in front of her did not help either. This was her first date after a very long hiatus, in which she was far too caught up with work to bother about men. And so far, the date was not going as well as she'd hoped.

_'Oh God bless my soul'_, Hinata thought to herself.

She looked across at her blind date as he continued rambling on about his recent escapades to Paris, Rome, Dubai, or _wherever, _clearly not noticing the state of discomfort the woman in front of him was in. He was wearing a deep maroon silk dress shirt and black slacks, his blond hair gelled to perfection as he wore a smile that she knew plenty of women would offer themselves for. He was cute. But she felt as attracted to him as same poles of a magnet. As she continued plastering the same polite smile on her face, nodding occasionally to feign interest, Hinata quietly scrambled to remember his name.

"..And so, he went like '_Monsieur _Deidara, you look much like the actor Jean Dujardin, no?'…" Her date chuckled with pride.

Ah yes, his name was Deidara.

She laughed lightly, more at his expense though. The man sitting in front of her did not look one bit like Jean Dujardin. Grudgingly, Hinata reminded herself of how she got into this predicament. Her other best friend, Sakura, had set her up with this guy she knew at work. She was the features editor for renowned magazine _Pose_ and had thought that the new cute travel writer named Deidara would be perfect for her lonely, single best friend. Well, that's what Sakura and Ino thought as they cajoled –or coaxed- her into going on the date. With Sakura already married and Ino in a committed relationship, they felt as if it was their upmost responsibility to get their lovely Hina into a relationship as well. "It would be good for you!" was what they had said to her the day before the date.

Hinata inwardly groaned as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat, adjusting the straps of her navy blue bandage dress. This small action earned her unwanted attention from the old man next to her as she felt his gaze practically probing her figure. She scoffed at this, promptly causing the old man to resume his attention on the undoubtedly well-endowed blonde in front of him. This, however, also caused Deidara to stop mid sentence.

"I'm sorry, am I boring you?" Deidara tried to suppress the irritation at being interrupted from showing in his voice. But Hinata heard it. And it made her feel awkward. How she hated herself when she was awkward.

"Oh, umm..." She stammered as she felt the all too familiar feeling of blood rushing to her face. "Surely not. Please continue." Hinata tried to smile sweetly.

Thankfully, he bought it. In fact, she was surprised to see him lean forward and reach for her right hand she had been mindlessly using to trace imaginary patterns on the tablecloth.

"Do I make you nervous?" He purred, all the while caressing her hand with his fingers. Hinata froze at the contact, eyes widening as she felt her cheeks flare up. "You don't have to be nervous you know. But you look so sexy when you blush." Deidara licked his lips, an act he had done in hopes to seduce her.

Out of disgust, she immediately pulled her hand away, as if she had been burnt. "Err, so Deidara-san, tell me more about you." Hinata tried to say flatly, but she found that she sounded more timid than desired.

Deidara blinked twice and then flashed a smile which raised the hairs at the back of her neck, in a bad way.

"Why don't you tell me about you, princess?" He teased and his eyes subsequently travelled down her face and slowly further downwards to the point where he was blatantly staring at her breasts.

Hinata furrowed her eyebrows in anger and disgust. "Excuse me?" She snapped, proceeding to cross her arms over her chest to prevent further degradation of her form. He looked up almost predatorily at her and chuckled. She decided that she disliked the sound of his laugh, as it was the summation of his personality in general. It was filled with pride and ego.

"I'm sorry. It's just that I hardly go out on a blind date with someone who turns out to be as attractive as you." He leaned back on his chair. "If I had only known that the heiress of Hyuuga Cruises International was going to be this hot-"

"I'm sorry, what?" Hinata blinked in confusion.

Now Deidara seemed to falter a bit before decidedly continuing, "Sakura-san told me your name. I've heard it before." His eyes were questioning, more curious than Hinata would have liked.

"You are Hyuuga Hiashi's daughter aren't you? …The billionaire?" He inquired.

At that instant, she felt like bolting for the door. Instead, she did the only sane thing she knew she could.

She nodded her head.

"Yes. Apparently my cover's blown?" She almost laughed at herself in pity.

Deidara did not notice the tone of her laugh however. He immediately leaned forward again in interest, probably thinking to himself that he was going to hit a homerun tonight with a billion-dollar heiress. He did not need to say it out loud since it was written all over his face. Hinata could read him like a book. Like the way she had read so many men with whom she had dated before.

"So tell me, how's it like to grow up being so rich?" His eyes gleamed as he imagined the prospects of such wealth in his possession.

It was a question that she had heard so many times in her life.

Almost instantaneously, she was reminded of the main reason why she had been on hiatus from dating in the first place. And of all the men she found that were more interested in her wealth, her background, than who she really was.

Hinata took a big gulp of red wine from her glass, all the while staring blankly at the man in front of her and knowing that waiting ahead of her was a long, agonizing night.

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"He said what?"

Ino's voice was ringing through her ears. Hinata immediately pondered if it occurred to anyone that having a phone call could potentially cause audio impairment.

"That son of a bi-I mean heifer!" She meticulously added.

Hinata had to giggle at that. Earlier this week Sakura had betted that Ino could not live two weeks without cursing and naturally, she had taken her up for that challenge. But knowing that Ino's vocabulary could make a sailor turn beet red in embarrassment, Hinata wondered if she could live this through.

"Calm down Ino-chan. It's only one date. I doubt I'll be seeing him again." Hinata smiled as she paced around her bedroom. She directed her gaze to her bed that was practically beckoning to her and frankly she couldn't wait to jump under the soft cottony covers and just forget about tonight as if it had never happened.

After she had admitted to Deidara that she was indeed, Hyuuga Hiashi's biological daughter, he had bombarded her with questions ranging from how her father was in person, whether or not he truly had a bathroom made out of pure gold, his vintage collection of cars, the number of estates that he owned and up to whether the hair on his head was authentic. Questions to which, Hinata had not given direct answers but instead gave replies that would not disclose any real personal information on her father. Replies to which, just spurred more questions from eager little Deidara. At the end of the date, Hinata realized that he probably knew much more about her father than he knew about her.

"Oh whatever-" Ino's sharp, slightly nasally tone broke her longing gaze to her bed and Hinata could imagine her best friend rolling her eyes. "-he's still a di-I mean jerk. I'm really sorry I pushed you into this, Hina-chan. I bet Sakura will be too when you tell her 'bout it."

Hinata smiled to herself and sighed. "Yeah, well. I just don't know if love is ever going to happen to me, you know?" She blushed when she realized how pitiful she must have sounded.

"Are you freaking serious?" To her surprise, she heard Ino chuckling on the other side of the phone.

"Oh Hime you can be such an idiot sometimes." More chuckling. Hinata huffed and pouted in response, even more so after hearing her best friend call her by her pet name.

"Gee… It's so nice having such a supportive best friend like you, Ino-chan!" Hinata exclaimed rather sarcastically, which resulted to more chuckles erupting from Ino.

"Relax Hina-chan. As shitty as it seems, love will take its course. And soon enough you'll find someone who is not completely an egoistical, moronic, dickhead of a man, who will love you for who you are. Because you're fucking hot. And who wouldn't want to tap that?" Ino said as if it was just a well-known fact to her. Hinata grimaced at her words.

"Err…Okay Ino-chan." Hinata uttered awkwardly. "..I guess so." She agreed just because that's what Ino wanted to hear.

"See? There's nothing to worry about. I know there are plenty of jerk offs out there but hey, who said finding a man would be easy, right?"

Hinata laughed lightly at this, feeling her spirits rise even if just for a little while.

"I got you. I'll be patient then."

Ino squealed in delight. "Well I've got to go now. Shikamaru's waiting upstairs and frankly I can't wait to see his face when I walk into the room in only this racy red thong I bought from the flea market the other day. I can just imagine him pushing me up the wall and sucking my-"

"OKAY I GET IT." Hinata practically screamed, wanting to push away any disturbing and hurl-inducing images of her best friend and her boyfriend of 5 years getting intimate against the bedroom wall.

"Goodnight Ino-chan and thanks for everything." Hinata uttered graciously.

"Anytime, Hime."

"Oh, and Ino?"

"Yes, dear?"

"You cursed." Hinata sneered uncharacteristically. This sent Ino exclaiming a string of more colorful words in return. "Ah, fuck it." Ino exclaimed in the end. "I won't tell her if you won't."

Out of sheer kindness, Hinata agreed. "Fine. But only if you promise to not push me into any blind dates again."

"That's settled then. Goodnight Hime. You'll find your prince soon." The last sentence caused Hinata to twitch disturbingly. "OH SHIKA-BABY, I HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU!" She heard Ino say before her phone clicked shut. Hinata laughed to herself. She was sure that the last part of her sentence was directed to Shikamaru instead.

Immediately after, she put down her cell phone on the bedside table and resigned to her previous wishes, plopping down on her bed and staring at the ceiling of her room. In her room where the only sound entertaining her was the reassuring hum of the air conditioner, she willed herself to calm her mind. She shut her eyes as an effort to fall into deep slumber.

Hinata did not know why she was subjected to situations where her background took centre stage and everything else did not matter when they should have. That's the whole reason why she had refused to continue living in the world of maids, table etiquette, lavish balls every fortnight, and schedules for every day, every minute, and every waking second. When she was at the age of twenty-two, she decided she wanted more to life than just being an heiress. So she broke free. And from then, she has never looked back.

At first, it had been hard. Struggling to make ends meet, she found herself a job as a waitress at the local diner just two blocks from her first dingy, roach-filled apartment. It took her a while before she noticed the enormous growth in her bank account. It wasn't because of her job, though. She knew there could only be one plausible reason why she was suddenly in possession of so much money. Her father.

Hyuuga Hiashi was not, by any means, a _softie_. He was always calm and controlled, face void of any emotion save for the little smiles he gives his daughters, Hinata and Hanabi, when they say or do something that amuses him. He also knew his way with words and never says more than he should in any given matter. That, Hinata mused, must be a requirement for someone in his line of work.

As the founder and CEO of Hyuuga Cruises International, Hyuuga Hiashi was considered one of the richest men in the world, if not surely one of the most successful. At 59, he was still the stronghold of the company, standing tall and upright in his own intimidating manner. His once dark brown hair, now graying is always neatly combed to the side and years of stress and work had made marks as wrinkles on his face. But his intense opal hued eyes never quite lost their spark as they narrowed and glowered at anyone who dared to cross him. His eyes were exactly the same as Hinata's, albeit the differences in expression. But what she lacked in the sternness and coldness of the eyes, she made up for compassion and innocence. Hiashi had been aware of this fact since the day he cradled Hinata in his arms and found himself staring at those eyes.

So even when his daughter's seemingly rash decision to move out of the Hyuuga household to fend for herself did in fact, enrage him, he reasoned that she still needed assistance to get her a head start. He loved her daughter with every inch of his heart. Everybody around him knew that. He knew that. And so, he respected her decision and quietly wired a sum of money to her bank account without her knowledge. And when she had questioned him about the money, he had simply looked at her and gave her a small smile. With that, the subject was dropped and the money was used to rent a better apartment. It was the current apartment Hinata was living in.

Hinata knew her father better than anyone in the world. She used to be terrified at the prospect that she might be a disappointment to her father. That she could never live up to his expectations and wishes. So the fact that he had respected her decision to resign from a life of luxury was a testament of how much he cared for her. And she will always be indebted to him.

She also could never express enough gratitude that she felt for her sister, who agreed to take Hinata's duties as the expected future leader of the family business. As much as Hanabi loved being the 'wild' sibling of the two, she knew that she could not let the family business fall into the wrong hands. But she never gave up her wild streak though. And Hinata loved Hanabi for that. She smiled at the thought of her father massaging his temples whenever he picked up the daily papers to find numerous articles displaying Hanabi's various rendezvous with the President's grandson, Konohamaru.

They were an odd bunch, Hiashi, Hinata and Hanabi. But they were happy together.

That's what, Hinata thought, no paparazzi, blogs or tabloids would ever find out about Hyuuga Hiashi and his daughters. They would never know that they were normal people, a father his daughters that cared about each other as much as other families did. And putting aside all the wealth, they were in fact, just people who wanted to be treated not like they were walking dollar signs.

Hinata sighed and felt herself succumb to slumber as she snuggled comfortably under her duvet.

She wondered if there was ever going to be someone who will look past everything and finally, _truly,_ see her.

Because isn't that what everyone wants?

To be loved?


	2. Bobo

**A/N: **Hello again! ^^ I am back after hours of editing the second chapter of this story. Overall, I'm pleased with the outcome but I am hopeful that you will all like it as well. I'm not going to waste anymore of your time so...Enjoy! :D

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**Chapter Two **

If there was one thing in life that Uchiha Sasuke was not sure of, it was not himself. He knew exactly who he was, the boy that he used to be, the young man he grew into and the man he became. There were some things he had done in the past that he would have liked to change. But he figured that everyone did, as well. And every waking moment, he would convince himself that those choices were what molded him into the person he was today.

Not that he was proud of who he was.

At 27, Sasuke was a loner. Predicaments in life had pushed him to build an emotional wall against people who threatened to get too close to him. Sasuke was also not a man for words. He found that unnecessary speech may lead to unnecessary conflict. Even though most of the time he did not have anything to say anyways.

It was clear that Uchiha Sasuke was not a social butterfly. Not in the slightest.

In rare times, he found a confidant in his cousin, Naruto, whose apartment he also shared with. And besides the hyperactive blond idiot he had the pleasantry of calling cousin, there was no one else. It was not like he was not granted a choice. He preferred not to get caught up in such trivial matters like relationships, love, or even _feelings._

It was too much of a hassle, he convinced himself.

As a child, Sasuke was never given the privilege of having a happy childhood. A broken family was what he had been born into. The only male figure he ever respected in his life was his older brother, Itachi. Being the righteous man he was, Itachi had enlisted in the army when Sasuke was just 6. Sasuke always wondered, however, if his motive for joining the army was to escape the whirlwind of a marriage that their parents led. He never got a chance to ask him.

Two years after he enlisted, Uchiha Itachi was killed in action.

His father had more than once returned home drunk to the point where he had his blind fits of rage at anything and anyone who came too near. And every single time, Sasuke's mother would be his desired target practice. After Itachi's death, the incidents became more frequent, more violent.

Uchiha Fugaku was not a weak man. As a construction worker who had a penchant for liquor and bouts of violence, it was a wonder how his wife, Mikoto, had ever agreed to marry him. Sometimes, Sasuke pondered whether his father had truly loved his mother like he knew she loved him.

All too many times, Sasuke was reminded of how he trembled and watched in horror, as his father would slap his mother around when she had simply tried to help him. Sasuke had tried, many times to subdue his father. But being the scrawny kid he was, he always managed to anger his father even more and this brought way to more beatings on him and her mother.

At 15, Sasuke knew that he could no longer stay silent. With all the love and respect for his father already turned into hate and resentment, he decided that he would no longer stand back whenever his father tried to lay a finger on his mother and him, ever again. And so, he learnt how to fight. Be it on the ring, on the streets or wherever, Uchiha Sasuke became a fighter. And a very good one at that.

So when the time came and his father had once again returned home in his violent, drunken stupor, Sasuke no longer stood as the trembling young boy he once was when his father had thrown his mother to the floor after she reprimanded him for drinking again. Call it instinct, or maybe a long-awaited reflex. But whatever it was, it prompted Sasuke to deliver a powerful blow to his father's jaw with so much fury, fueled by years of neglect and abuse. The cracking sound when Sasuke's fist came in contact with his father's face resounded throughout their entire house. And he still remembered what had happened after that.

The blow had sent Uchiha Fugaku sprawling on the floor, sputtering blood from his mouth. Mikoto screamed in horror as she witnessed her son towering over her husband, eyes filled with uncontrollable hatred. Fugaku then looked up at Sasuke with an expression so blank and emotionless that it was as if his soul had just left him. After what seemed like forever, he simply picked himself up off the floor and walked out the door silently.

He never returned since.

Never once had Sasuke regretted what he had done for his mother that night. He knew he had saved her from further abuse she did not deserve at all from the man she loved. He, on the other hand, knew he could never be saved. His past had made him into a brooding man with no purpose in life. A man who only knew how to fight, survive and go on with the motions of life. It was no wonder that he found no reason to delve into love. He just wasn't the type to, he had more than once said to himself.

Nevertheless, one would think someone so silent, antisocial and void of emotion would be unattractive.

One could also be completely wrong.

After years of physical exercise and training, Uchiha Sasuke had achieved a well-defined, muscular but lean physique. He stood at the height of 6'2" and easily towered almost everyone he knew. He had thick, ebony black hair that always appeared tousled and disheveled, dark locks always kept at bay by the motion of him running his hand through his hair. With strong and defining facial features, he made women swoon at the glimpse of him and men scramble away in fear when he glared at them. His eyes were the color of charcoal, so dark and intense that they mirrored exactly what Sasuke felt at all times. In definition, Sasuke was the epitome of tall, dark, and dangerously handsome.

He however, did not appreciate that fact.

Sasuke could remember on more than one occasion where had to practically pry away women who were literally salivating at the sight of him. His looks that he had inherited undoubtedly from his mother drew so much unwanted attention from the female species that he had either three options to throw off their distasteful advances:

1. Glare at them with killer intent.

2. Mention something rude about their physical appearances, and,

3. Pretend that he was gay.

Option 1 and 2 were almost always never effective. When option 3 was always chosen, women would always laugh in return and stalk off in the opposite direction, saying how it all made sense as too why Sasuke was too fit and good-looking.

Like _hell_ was he gay.

All in all, Sasuke was pretty sure of himself.

But if there was one matter that Uchiha Sasuke found himself at loss, it would be how to do laundry.

He looked down at the rather large laundry basket he was carrying with both his arms, scrunching his nose in disgust at the ominous smell coming from underneath the pile of dirty shirts, socks, pants, and _yellow _briefs. Sasuke frowned. These were not even his laundry to begin with.

And he suspected the briefs in the basket used to be _white_.

Sasuke entered the nearest Laundromat he could find, a few blocks away from him and Naruto's apartment. As soon as he stepped into the facility, he was overwhelmed by the smell of detergent and perfume. He inwardly paled as he realized that the only people present in said facility were of the female species.

Almost instantaneously, he felt the eyes of all five females from different corners of the room ogling at him. Sasuke silently fumed and his grip on the basket tightened as he made his way towards the counter, ignoring the increasingly seductive smile the woman behind the counter was giving him. He was immediately reminded of why he was in a self-service laundry with a basketful of disgusting clothes that he did not own and attention that was not desired in the least.

Naruto, his blasted distant cousin –more than twice removed- was usually given the privilege to do all the laundry, both his and Sasuke's while Sasuke was in charge of overall maintenance of the apartment. God, the more he thought about it, they sounded like a couple. With that thought, Sasuke resisted the urge to puke in his mouth. He swatted the thought away.

This week, Naruto had apparently forgotten to do his laundry but had conveniently remembered to do Sasuke's. So he had the nerve to send 23 text messages to him, pleading him to do his laundry as he was busy with a girl doing _God-knows-what_ in _God-knows-where_.

The constant beeping of his cell phone earlier this afternoon had distracted Sasuke from a much needed run he usually had to clear his mind.

'_Hey, bro. 4got to do my laundry. Did yours tho. Mind helping me do it? Pretty please?_' The first out of the 23 messages had read. It was a message that Sasuke felt obliged to ignore, if not for the other 22 messages on his cell.

'_Come on Sasu-channnnnnnnnn. Help out ur dear old cuzin.' _Another one had read, to which Sasuke just rolled his eyes at before deleting it.

'_Wif Amy now…or Aly? Kinda tied up now so…hows about sum mercy?' _Sasuke snorted in response before deleting that one, too.

It was the last of the troublesome messages that really caught him.

'_You should know that I dun hve any clean clothes so I'm wearing ur shirt, ur pants, and ur briefs. Wherever that went.'_

With that message, Sasuke had immediately changed course and bolted for his apartment to pick up Naruto's laundry. In lieu to his run back to the apartment, Sasuke made a mental note to annihilate his cousin if ever the clothing he had borrowed was to have any sort of mysterious stain on them.

'_The dobe never fails to surprise me._' Sasuke thought to himself has he practically slammed the basket of dirty laundry on the counter in front of him.

The woman manning the counter had her face caked in make up and her hair dyed bright orange. Bobo, as her name tag read, seemingly did not notice the seething anger coming out from the man in front of her as she still wore that alluring smile on her face. She leaned over on the counter, exposing a hefty amount of cleavage from her low-cut black tank top. Sasuke quirked his eyebrow at her attempt at seduction, inwardly sniggering at her name.

'_Bobo-chan? What kind of self-respecting parent would name their kid that?' _Sasuke thought.

"Hey, handsome… What can I do for you?" Bobo said breathily while batting her fake eyelashes at him. Sasuke wondered if that was supposed to sound sexy. 'Cause he was not attracted.

He grunted in annoyance. To be honest, his didn't know how Laundromats worked. In all 27 years of his life, never once had he stepped inside such place before. So far, he already decided he did not like Laundromats. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. It was then that he realized that he has yet to reply the counterwoman. Though she did not appear to mind as she was busy running her eyes from his chiseled face and down to the ripples of his toned arms behind the sleeves of the black t-shirt he wore.

He glared at her in return. "Wash these clothes." Sasuke uttered rather rudely, shoving the basket of rancid clothes up to her face. One of the yellow briefs fell out of the bucket and onto the counter.

Bobo eyed the soiled brief warily before resuming into her seductive manner. "Why you're a dirty boy aren't you?" She recoiled, batting her eyelashes once more. Disgusted, Sasuke decided to ignore the innuendo in her words and glared at her with much more intensity.

"Just wash them." He said through gritted teeth. "Do I pay you up front?"

She giggled at this and her high-pitched voice rang through his ears. Sasuke questioned if one could be diagnosed with audio impairment simply by such a horrid laugh comparative to that of a banshee's call.

"We can do it however you want it, _handsome-kun_." She purred and leaned even more forward. At this point, Uchiha Sasuke had had an eyeful of the orange bra Bobo-chan was wearing underneath her tank top. It matched her hair.

'_How cheap and distasteful.'_

Obviously fuming, he shoved his hand into the left pocket of his jeans, took out a fifty and threw it at the counter. "I'm not interested." He spat out. This caused the woman in front of him to pout exaggeratingly. At this point, he didn't care how much it actually cost to wash the bucketful of clothes, but he just needed to get the hell out of there. The uncomfortable ogling stares coming from the other females in the vicinity did not help as well. With that, he turned on his heel and headed towards the door.

"But-"

"I'll be back in two hours." Sasuke immediately uttered as he yanked the door open and stepped outside of the Laundromat.

There, right outside the entrance of the Laundromat, he shut his eyes for a brief second, trying to suppress the growing irritation coming from every crevice of his soul. Sasuke did not know why he was always subjected into situations all because of his looks and persona. Did women really crave for the attention of worthless, emotionless men?

When he opened his eyes, he saw a middle-aged woman across the road wearing a jumpsuit that was practically too tight for her. She was winking and blowing him a kiss. Furrowing his eyebrows at this, he turned to his left and started walking.

'_Yes. They do.'_ Sasuke thought.

He put his hands in his pocket and paced along the street, not knowing where he was headed for. He only knew that it was comforting to get lost in the crowd, blending in and not getting noticed. But since he was practically taller than everyone, '_blending in'_ proved to be a much difficult task. He was thankful that there were no lustful females in sight, though. After a while, Sasuke figured it was a good four blocks away from the Laundromat. He heaved a sigh of relief.

It was then that he sensed something was wrong.

He stopped dead in his tracks. And there it was.

In the corner of his eyes he noticed three shady men, all dressed in black. They were big and burly, faces stoic and hard. They had stopped walking just as Sasuke stopped in his tracks. His eyes hardened.

'_Trouble.'_ He thought to himself.

Pretending as if he didn't realize a thing, he ran his fingers through his hair and resumed walking, in a faster pace than he was. The three men went trailing after him, just as he thought they would. Sasuke tried weaving in an out of the crowd, but they always caught up with him. He grunted in annoyance.

'_They want trouble? I'll give them trouble.' _

He headed for the back alley he knew very well that was close to his apartment. And when he reached the familiar junction, he turned swiftly to his left, away from the crowds and walked further into the alley. The men mimicked his actions. It was secluded and quiet, and Sasuke had to avoid the disgusting liquid pools of _God-knows-what_ on the floor. When he reached the end of the alley, he was satisfied that nobody was in the area apart from him and the three buffoons. He took his hands out of his pockets and stopped his pace, turning back to face the three men.

"What do you want?" Sasuke uttered nonchalantly. The three men's faces instantaneously broke into equally malicious smiles. This prompted Sasuke to roll his eyes. '_Are they triplets or something?'_

"You owe Mr. Tobi a large amount of money, Uchiha." One of the men, sporting a crew cut and a chipped tooth, quipped.

"Yeah, yeah, and it's long overdue." Another one, with cornrows and nose piercings, added with a gruff voice.

"So we're here to remind you of how bad it is.." The third one sporting a sleeve of tattoos on his right arm started. "..To mess with Mr. Tobi." He cracked his knuckles, no doubt to add for the dramatic effect.

Sasuke chuckled in return. "I'm afraid I am a bit broke at the moment." He said nonchalantly, realizing that the fifty he gave to Bobo at the Laundromat was probably the last his current life savings.

"So why don't you save your pathetic attempts at intimidating me for some other dude who would buy into that amount of bullshit the three of you just said." Sasuke added, flashing them his trademark smirk.

"You son of a bitch!" Chipped-tooth yelled, red-faced with anger as he started barreling towards Sasuke with his fists clenched.

See? Somewhere deep in his conscience, Sasuke knew that unnecessary speech led to unnecessary conflict.

The Uchiha merely swayed to the right to evade Chipped-tooth's punch, and subsequently to the left at his pathetic attempt of a roundhouse kick. With speed only a trained fighter with his experience could, Sasuke grabbed him by the left wrist and twisted Chipped-tooth's left arm around to his back and delivered a swift, powerful blow to his jaw. This sent Chipped-tooth falling to his knees as he looked up at Sasuke, gaping in horror. Sasuke raised his eyebrows in amusement.

Chipped-tooth had _indeed_, chipped another tooth.

His trail of thought was disrupted when he noticed Cornrows and Tattoos were both charging towards him. Sasuke jumped away from his position when Tattoos practically tried to pummel him to the ground. Knowing that he was significantly leaner and lighter that Tattoos, Sasuke decided staying still was probably not a good decision. He then strategically elbowed Tattoos at the back of his neck with enough force to cause him to land face-first on the ground. Tattoos laid there, twitching and groaning in pain, just as Sasuke had expected.

Sasuke then directed his attention to Cornrows, who was by then standing in fear at the sight of his fallen comrades. Sasuke walked slowly towards Cornrows, glaring with ferocity and cracking his knuckles for the dramatic effect, like Tattoos had done earlier.

Now if there was one thing that was undeniable about Uchiha Sasuke, it would be that he had a deadly aura about him. And it was this same killer intent seemingly seeping out of him that caused Chipped-tooth to practically haul Tattoos on his back and scramble away from the terrifying scene. Cornrows shakily stood in front of him, eyes filled with fear as Sasuke inched nearer to him.

"Get lost." Sasuke said through gritted teeth.

It was at that second that Cornrows hastily reached inside his jacket to pull out a concealed gun. Aiming the gun at Sasuke, Cornrows chuckled sadistically. Sasuke stood unperturbed, his eyes moving from the barrel of the gun towards the eyes of his opponent. He was inwardly satisfied at the look of fear in his eyes. Sasuke knew that Cornrows' fear could be his chance to get out of the dangerous situation.

And so, with a jerk of Sasuke's arm, Cornrows was seen running away for his dear life.

"Coward." Sasuke muttered at Cornrows' retreating figure and cursed when he realized his own rapidly beating heart.

He could've been shot then.

It was a simple thought. Something that instantly crept into his mind at the thought of him dying from a gunshot.

If he really had been shot dead in this alleyway, would anyone mourn for him?

Naruto? _Maybe_. But was there anyone else?

Uchiha Sasuke ran his hands through his hair and looked up to the graying sky. Feeling the first drop of rain fall down on his cheek, he closed his eyes and sighed.

No.

He was alone.

_Nobody loved him._

* * *

"Hey Sasuke-teme! You really did do my laundry!" Naruto exclaimed joyfully after he had returned home from his date wearing _his _blue button-down shirt, _his _beloved faded jeans and for all he knew,_ his_ prized tomato-print boxers.

'_That's probably soiled beyond doubt.'_ Sasuke thought grudgingly as he pretended to be asleep on the couch. After the fight with the three buffoons and the subsequent emotional epiphany he had, Sasuke was beat. And dealing with a moron would not lessen the fatigue but instead do otherwise.

"You're not such a jackass after all!" Naruto added, his robust laughter filling the entire apartment.

Sasuke could hear Naruto sorting through the fresh laundry, probably marveling at how clean and white his boxers were.

"Errrr…" Naruto suddenly uttered in confusion. This caused Sasuke to quirk an eyebrow, as he continued his fake slumber.

"Sasuke, what's an orange bra doing in my laundry?" Naruto quipped quizzically, holding up the brightly-colored undergarment with his left hand. Sasuke opened his eyes immediately and looked at Naruto.

Naruto then held up a folded piece of paper to his face, scrunching his nose as he opened and read it. "It says 'Call Me'."

This caused Sasuke to furrow his eyebrows in disgust. "Hn." He simply uttered in reply.

The blonde then put the paper down and looked at Sasuke, his eyes narrowed and his nose scrunched up in disapproval.

"Who in their right mind of fuck would name their child Bobo?"

Sasuke smirked to himself and closed his eyes once more in hopes of catching some real sleep.

* * *

And that's it! Hope you enjoyed chapter two of 'My Bodyguard & I' :D I know it's brutal for me to kill off Itachi in this story but hey, I'm just staying true to what's supposed to happen :) I'm going through my A-levels Exam currently so I probably won't be updating as often as I'd like but I'll be sure to continue this story :)

So thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day!


	3. Yum

**A/N:** I'm BACK! First off, I'd just like to thank everyone who read the first two chapters and also for everyone who reviewed. :) I feel deeply appreciative and frankly, I can't wait to continue this story. I really hope this chapter isn't too draggy or lacking in humor and whatnot. I'm still figuring out the story so please bear with me! Nevertheless, I really hope you'll love this chapter.

* * *

**My Bodyguard & I **

_"She always wanted a prince charming. But no one said anything about a bodyguard."  
_

**Chapter Three**

_Snip! _

Hinata trimmed off the last of the wilted buds from the bunch of white Azaleas in her latest flower arrangement she was working on for her favorite customer, Yuuhi Kurenai. She sighed at the sight of her completed task and wiped away the sweat from her brow.

'_It's perfect.'_ Hinata had thought to herself, smiling with satisfaction at the outcome of hours and hours of slaving by her worktable at the back of her shop.

The arrangement was simple enough. A bevy of beautiful white Azaleas gathered together, surrounded by a bed of small, delicate Primroses she thought that complimented the Azaleas perfectly. Hinata found that the natural subtle colors of the flowers added more to the elegance of the piece. The light pink and brilliant white of the Azaleas and the pastel yellow and off-white color of the Primrose suited each other effortlessly and were soothing to the eye. As if they were meant to be together as such, they were laid in a quaint, oval wooden basket. Surely, Hinata always knew that there was beauty in simplicity.

After all, she knew that she could never give anything short of perfection when it came to this particular order that always came on the 20th of each month. To be truthful, Hinata still remembered the first time when her former grade school teacher had approached her to place this order.

It was about three years ago, when business had only started booming. It was then that Yuuhi Kurenai decided to step into the shop that one of her former student had set up in town. She had wanted to help out her student, to give emotional or financial support if needed, only to find out that she was in fact, doing quite well on her own.

'_Who knew that people needed flowers so much?'_ She had thought to herself upon the sight of her beloved student, Hyuuga Hinata, running around from corner to corner of her shop, snipping, tying, watering and arranging flowers like a madwoman. Kurenai had smiled at the sight, knowing that Hinata was going to be just fine.

Hinata had not taken notice of Kurenai's presence until she tapped her on the shoulder. Upon seeing her former teacher's face, Hinata instantly brightened up from her state of stress and smiled in disbelief.

"Kurenai-sensei! It's been a while!" Hinata had uttered, the presence of her favorite grade school teacher in her shop surprising her immensely.

"Hello Hinata-chan." Kurenai had smiled warmly at the petite girl.

Kurenai then enveloped Hinata into a hug before adding, "I have a special order I'd like to place."

Looking back, Hinata was glad to have seen Kurenai again. From then on, Kurenai still placed the same order again every consecutive month. She never told Kurenai that she knew the reason behind the orders, though there was always this mild suspicion that her former sensei actually acknowledged the fact that she knew, but just never saw the need to say it out loud. Nevertheless, they never talked about the motive behind the particular basket of flowers.

"_Just white Azaleas and Primroses, alright?" _Her sensei had requested.

White Azaleas meant fragility and temperance. And Primroses were given to express eternal love.

Right after her sensei had requested those particular flowers, Hinata knew. Kurenai had ordered the small bouquet of flowers for her late husband, Asuma, who was killed in a car crash on November the 20th, a couple years back. A year after his death, Kurenai started visiting his grave on the 20th of every month with flowers in her hand to express the love she knew she could never put in words.

"_I know it's too much to ask, but it has to be perfect, Hinata-chan." _Kurenai had requested earnestly before exiting her shop.

"It is perfect." Hinata exclaimed, looking at the miniature bouquet in front of her. Carefully, Hinata placed the basket of flowers in a safe, humid area where they would be ready for pickup when Kurenai was to drop by later that evening. After tidying up her worktable, she headed towards the main area of her shop and plopped down on the comfy green sofa against the right wall of the room.

Hinata heaved a sigh of relief, rubbing her eyes that were sore from fatigue. Adjusting herself so that she was lying flat on her back, she then played with the pockets of her frilly pink apron she usually donned over her clothes when she was working. Hinata quietly looked at the surroundings of her shop, humming to herself happily.

At this point, Hinata took pride in herself for actually having a job in which she was truly blessed with. Considering she was her own boss, she thought that she had the best career anyone could ever have.

Her early –almost juvenile- fascination with flowers were once considered as a mere interest or _God forbid_, hobby, until one day she found herself looking into the window of a recently vacant lot located just a few blocks from her apartment.

Fate intervened. Or was just a spark of inspiration?

Whatever may have happened that moment, a passion had suddenly stirred in the depths of her heart, gnawing at her sub-conscious. Looking back, it had been 3 years past since that day. Never once had she regretted meeting the realtor the day after and never once had she wanted to turn on her decision to buy that empty lot with the remaining money she had after buying her apartment.

Now, she was the proud owner of _'The Amaryllis'_, a modest flower shop she called her pride and joy. Business has been unbelievably profiting since its' opening, and she has learnt to be grateful for that sudden wisp of intuition that made it all happen.

Along with her close friends who were more than happy for her success, there were others who were skeptical of her choice in career. They wondered why a young lady with her upbringing and status would delve into an occupation that would force her to be associated with soil, earthworms, and fertilizers that smelt literally like animal droppings.

To this, Hinata might have scoffed at their narrow-mindedness, if not for her father being one of the skeptics. But after months of proving to him that her choice to be a florist was the right one, Hiashi finally realized that his daughter made the right decision.

And soon, the skeptics found better things to do and poured their skepticism elsewhere where it actually mattered and Hinata moved on with her life with a job that she loved with all her heart.

The chime of the small bell at the door caused Hinata to snap out of her train of thoughts and before she could even regain her composure, she heard two deafening voices call out for her.

"HINA-HIME!" Both Sakura and Ino chorused jovially, both smiling like they had just won the lottery.

This caused Hinata to fall face-flat on the ground after she had somehow gotten her legs tangled together awkwardly in attempt to abruptly rise from the couch.

"_Oof!"_ She squeaked, her face buried in the fluffy rag on the floor.

Almost immediately, the fall (one of many that were stored in Hyuuga Hinata's vault of shame) brought way to a hysterical fit of sniggering, sneering, snorting and laughing coming out of both Hinata's best friends. Consumed with embarrassment and red-faced like a tomato, Hinata quickly picked herself up and dusted imaginary particles of debris off of her work apron.

"Oh Hina-chan you're so clumsy!" Sakura ran and pulled her into a rib-crushing bear hug. Where she got her inhumane strength from was a mystery to Hinata.

"Thanks-Sa-ku-ra-chan!" Hinata choked out sarcastically, if it was even possible given that she was currently struggling with oxygen depletion.

"Come on Conan, you're going to kill Hinata with your barbaric strength." Ino said as a matter-of-factly.

Sakura immediately let go and huffed in response. She subsequently patted Hinata on the head and giggled when Hinata lightly glared at her in return.

"So…." Hinata started, her eyes darting from the statuesque blonde to the curvaceous pink-haired woman. "….What are you guys doing here?" She asked innocently, her eyebrows knitted in confusion.

Ino feigned a heart attack before uttering, "My, my, we were just in the neighborhood and was wondering what our sweet Hinata was doing." She fell down on the green couch for comic effect. Hinata giggled at her antics.

"Yes, that is indeed the case. And one should always be worried if ever their best friend should be collapsed under a bag of heavy soil or have fallen into deep unconsciousness as an effect of sniffing one too many foul-smelling fertilizers!" Sakura then dramatically added and headed to sit on the high stool behind the front counter.

Hinata stuck her tongue out at both of them, wondering how long it took for them to rehearse their lines in case she asked them that question. She then put her hands on her hips and gave them the hardest glare she ever could muster.

"Is this about another blind date? 'Cuz you know I'm never going to do it again." Hinata said flatly.

Sakura and Ino laughed at this. Apparently the idea of Hinata going on a blind date seemed ridiculous to them already, too.

"No, silly! After what happened between you and Deidara two weeks ago, we would never commit such a horrendous act ever again!" Sakura uttered in her best attempt at a British accent.

"Yea, and he had a penis for a head. What a fucking loser." Ino spat out as she rolled her eyes.

Her words made Hinata blush once more and Sakura sigh exasperatedly.

"How you manage to hold back your dirty mouth for even two weeks is beyond me."

Ino winked at Hinata before proudly uttering, "Well, I'm a pro, you know."

Sakura snorted and waved her hand dismissively. "Oh whatever, now tell Hinata-chan why we're here."

Ino turned her head towards Hinata's direction and smiled mischievously, twirling the ends of her high ponytail with her polished, manicured fingers. Hinata grimaced.

'_Kami, now what?'_ She thought alarmingly as she stared at the faces of her two best friends. The three of them had known each other since grade school and whenever Sakura and Ino shot Hinata with their suspiciously mischievous expressions -much like the ones they were giving her now- it always ended up with Hinata getting caught in ridiculous situations where she was either doing something against her wishes or dressed in clothing that were far from being remotely comfortable.

After the many disastrous maid outfits, bunny costumes, popping out of fake birthday cakes and _blind dates _Ino and Sakura had put her up with, Hinata felt very much obliged to refuse whatever they were planning this time around. Though like many times before, she knew she'd always be convinced otherwise.

"No." Hinata briskly walked to the area behind the counter and started operating the till beside Sakura. She opened the cash register and pretended to count the dollar bills, as if the amount had miraculously grown since the last time she had counted them before the dynamic duo's grand entrance. "Whatever you two are planning, the answer is no."

Whines of disappointed filled the air.

"But Hina-chan! We just want to bring you out to this new club opening down the street tonight! It sounds like an innocent place enough!" Ino whined.

Sakura nodded her head so vigorously that she resembled a bobble-head doll.

"Yeah Hinata-chan! It's called the 'Devil's Pitcher'." Sakura added innocently.

Hinata literally coughed at the name, placing the dollar bills back into the register and slamming it shut. She scrunched up her nose at the thought of a dark facility playing loud deafening music, stuffy air that reeked of alcohol and sweat, and scantily clad females gyrating against dark, shady men. And there she imagined herself standing in the middle of a sea of people bobbing their heads and grinding to vulgar 'touch-me-now' music as she felt herself flailing her arms for help but she was drowning, and suffocating and-

No way in hell.

"NO!" Hinata whimpered, eyes widening at her horrific imaginary scenario.

* * *

"YES!" Sakura practically howled into the night.

It was blatantly obvious that Sakura's husband of two years, Kiba, had rubbed off on her.

Hinata sighed in defeat at the sight of her two best friends already drunk beyond compare. The two of them reasoned that since they could be drunker than the state they were in, they might as well drag the clearly _sober _Hinata along as they walked towards their designated destination. Well, Hinata _tried _to walk in the strappy silver stilettos she wore while her friends practically glided in their drunken stupor towards the long line forming in front of the entrance of the new hot club in town with a horrendous name, the 'Devil's Pitcher'.

"WE'RE HEREEEE~" The two chorused jovially, swaying from side to side.

The situation once again caused Hinata to sigh. People were starting to stare. And she hated being stared at. Especially when she was looking as indecent as she was right now.

Lost in her thoughts, Hinata silently cursed at herself for being such a pushover. Moreover so when she pulled at the hem of the skirt on her flashy off-the shoulder metallic silver cocktail dress she purchased at the whim of the devil's assistants themselves, Sakura and Ino. The two in mention, looked equally flashy in their hot pink bandage dress and purple tube dress respectively. Hinata could only hope that she did not look as trashy as she thought she did. But she had a nagging feeling in the pits of her stomach that confirmed her innermost fears.

As the trio neared the entrance, more specifically the end of the long line of people queuing up _in front_ of the entrance, Hinata could already hear the loud booming music coming from the inside of the ominous facility. They quickly got in line and waited for their turn. After a few minutes or so, Hinata shook her head and sighed for the millionth time tonight. Sakura, with her face already red and flushed from consuming the entire bottle of champagne she and Ino had shared on the way to the club, noticed her best friend's distress and nudged Ino in the ribs, causing the girl to yelp in surprise.

"Hey Himeeeee….what's with the looooong faceeeeee?" Sakura slurred, poking at Hinata's cheek repeatedly.

Ino swayed from left to right, the ability of standing straight apparently leaving her. She then reached out to grab Hinata by the shoulders, shaking her vehemently with as much strength as a drunken woman could muster. Tendrils of straightened blue locks flew wildly about Hinata's face as she felt Ino shaking her fragile bones out of place.

'_What have I gotten myself into?'_ Hinata tried to squirm her way out of Ino's death grip, but to no avail.

"Listen, Hinata-_hic_-chan!" Ino hiccupped and consequently released her grip on the poor woman she was assaulting. Hinata only stood gaping, grateful that Ino had stopped shaking her, while Sakura burst into a fit of intoxicated giggles.

"We are_-hic_- YOUNG!" She started again. "But me and forehead over here-"

"HEY!" Sakura protested.

"_Shhhhhhh_!" Ino directly held a finger to the pink-haired woman's lips, silencing her.

"ANYWAYS! Like I was –_hic_- saying, we are no longer on the –_hic_- shelf, if you know what I mean.." Ino continued, her words getting less audible by the second.

Hinata smiled uncomfortably before asking, "And what metaphorical shelf are we talking about again?"

"The shelf of SINGLEDOM!" Ino pumped her fists in the air.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Sakura burped a reply, her face turning a slight tinge of green.

"AND YOU!" Ino ignored Sakura and tried her best to focus her gaze on the doe-eyed woman in front of her. "Hyuuga. Hinata." She jabbed her index finger at Hinata's chest after every syllable of her name.

Clearly in a state of discomfort, what with her friend blatantly jabbing at her breasts with her pointy (and sharp, since Ino made it her personal mission to get a manicure at least once a month) finger, Hinata was desperate to the point where she was ready to click her heels three times, screaming 'There's no place like home!'. She would have, but she figured it wouldn't work since she wasn't wearing ruby slippers.

"Is WAAAAAAAY up on the –_hic_- shelf!" Ino uttered (or yelled) as she motioned her words with exaggerated hand signals and arm waves. "The shelf of-_hic-_of of….err..."

"Singledom?" Hinata quipped, raising her eyebrows unsurely.

"YES, HYUUGA HINATA! Of SINGLEDOM!" The intoxicated blond exclaimed happily. By then, Sakura was closing her eyes and mumbling incoherently about how she didn't remember getting this drunk since her hen night. Hinata braced herself for what was to come out of the bizarre event that was happening before her eyes.

"SO…" Ino started again. "I think that you –_hic_- should march your teeny tiny little derriere into that club and –_hic-_ get some action with a hot guy whose –_hic-_ name you won't even remember in the morning before your eggs dry out in that fucking metaphorical shelf of Singledom!"

As if on cue, Sakura loudly heaved all over the curb. Hinata buried her face in her hands, making a mental note to herself to never go on any outings with Sakura and Ino again if ever alcohol was involved. Everyone in the line turned back to look at the three of them with disdain.

"Whatchu losers looking at!" The two drunkards angrily slurred while Hinata merely turned beet red in embarrassment, wondering why did Kami find her displeasure so amusing.

In fear of unleashing the wrath of two vicious drunken women, the disturbed onlookers minded their business once more.

It was at that moment that Hinata inwardly groaned. At the rate this was going, she knew that this was going to be another long night.

The three of them leaped over the rancid pool of barf that was Sakura's dinner and proceeded forward in the line, with Sakura and Ino indulging in ludicrous drunken small talk and Hinata obviously paling at every single vulgar word that was uttered. At one point, Hinata found that her friends' drunken stupor became much more calm and controlled. She thanked God for hearing her prayers and hoped that they were growing sober by the passing second, if ever that was logically possible.

It was a few minutes after the line had already gotten considerably shorter when Sakura and Ino, who were both at her sides, nudged Hinata hard in the ribs at the same time, causing Hinata to let out a strangled '_eep!_' in surprise.

"Yum." They both simultaneously uttered in a trance-like state, their gaze transfixed straight ahead.

Hinata knitted her eyebrows together in confusion before directing her line of vision to what had gotten the attention of both her best friends.

What she saw literally knocked the breath right out of her.

At this stage of her life, Hyuuga Hinata reckoned that she had seen plenty of attractive men. Blonde, brown-haired, red-headed, tanned, pale, skinny, built, tall and short, you name it, she's seen it all. Being the heiress she was, she had more than once been on arranged dates with the country's most eligible bachelors. And a hefty amount of them were all unbelievably attractive. She figured that due to their upbringing and stature, they were expected to be. Nevertheless, there were only a handful of them that really caught her attention with their good looks.

There was Inuzuka Kiba, Sakura's husband herself. Hinata had met him on one of such arranged dates before he and Sakura got acquainted with each other. He was the only son of a self-made millionaire who founded a profitable company producing pet foods. When Hinata met Kiba, she was immediately greeted with a large wolfish grin and a loud demeanor. He was of medium height and built, tan-skinned with hair the color of mahogany and undoubtedly good-looking. So when they parted amicably as friends, Hinata had introduced him to her best friend, Sakura. It was apparent that they had taken an instant liking towards each other. Kiba and Sakura started dating and ended up married a few years later.

Then there was the youngest son of the Mayor from Suna. Now he was quite a looker. With hair as fiery red as flames, sun-kissed skin and teal-colored eyes, Hinata was definitely taken aback by Sabaku Gaara. His sharp features and tall, lanky stature had somehow formed an aura about him that made him seem unattainable and superior. He even had the Kanji character of 'Love' tattooed on his forehead, of all places. But he was as hot-tempered as the sun himself. After a few meetings together, Hiashi had formed a strong opinion against his behavior and attitude. And just like that, Hinata never saw the red-headed boy again.

But never once, in Hinata's entire life, had she seen a man that could take her breath away with just one look.

_Never once. _

Until now.

Dressed in a black suit complete with a blood-red tie and a crisp white shirt underneath the tailored blazer, a tall –very tall- and fit-looking gentleman was standing in front of the entrance, arms crossed and expression as bored as a student during a classroom lecture. His facial features were hard to determine for sure, as Hinata was still a great deal away from the entrance. _'Is he the bouncer of this club?'_ Hinata thought to herself, clearly not noticing that Sakura and Ino were drooling at the sight of the man. His hair was as black as night, short and disheveled which, nonetheless, just added to his rugged persona. Occasionally, he would glare at the females he gave passage into the club when they got too touchy or loud, his charcoal-hued eyes rolling and hardening in annoyance. For some reason, Hinata found his manner endearing…Which was, of course, ridiculous, considering she did not know him at all.

But one thing was definite.

He was the most handsome man Hinata had ever laid her eyes on.

And slowly, Hinata found herself agreeing with the statement her two best friends had made earlier.

"…Yum." She uttered softly.

* * *

**A/N: **And that's the end of it! :D Stay tuned to know who's the 'most handsome man Hinata had ever laid her eyes on'! Hmm~ kinda obvious, ain't it?


	4. Guessing Games

**A/N: **Here is the fourth chapter of my version of a SasuHina fanfiction :) I really hope that you guys rather enjoyed the first 3 chapters and were not entirely bored that you could not bear reading much more of this fic. Anyhow, this story is a complete pleasure to write and I am sincerely grateful for each and every review I have gotten so far, and also for all the story alerts and such. So I dedicate this chapter to all of you readers out there.

Here's to you!

* * *

**My Bodyguard & I **

_"He was hired to protect her. But he left his heart unprotected."  
_

**Chapter Four**

Uchiha Sasuke's day started well enough. He woke up later than usual but he figured that since he did not have anything to do on a Saturday anyways, he saw the need to ignore the blasted alarm clock when it came alive at 8 am in the morning in its' usual ugly deafening ring. But after a long period, the annoying blare of ringing had finally gotten on his nerves and Sasuke had thrown the item against the wall in an effort to shut it up. Then he realized, after he'd woken up 4 hours later that it might not have been a good decision after all, since he didn't have enough money to buy another one.

Anyhow, he reasoned that he could always make his cousin buy him a new one. Deep inside his conscience, Sasuke knew that he shouldn't leech off of Naruto like he did. But there was a difference between doing something about it so that he wouldn't take advantage of Naruto, and not caring enough to do anything to better the situation.

And Sasuke decided he was the latter.

When he woke up, Sasuke tore the sheets away from his body and stretched out much like a cat awaking from slumber, standing up from his futon that was laid on the floor of the living room. The apartment that he shared with Naruto could not be completely described as an asset of equal ownership, considering that his cousin was responsible for paying slightly more than half the rent and owned practically all of the appliances and items inside the apartment. But Naruto had a heart of gold. And knowing that Sasuke's attempt at finding and keeping a job were all hardly successful, given his surly and less than sunny attitude, Naruto decided taking Sasuke in was just the right thing to do.

Sasuke snorted at the thought of Naruto flashing his trademark goofy smile and giving him the thumbs up, but Sasuke was honestly grateful to him. So when he found a message on his cell phone from Naruto later that evening, he made a promise to at least be cordial to him in his reply.

'_Sasu-chan! Can you do me a favour?' _the text had read.

'_Hn. What is it?'_Sasuke had sent in reply, eyebrow twitching at the suffix the idiot had added to his name.

'_Teme, are there more words in ur vocab than 'Hn.' Or 'Ah' or 'Dobe'?' _Sasuke could almost imagine Naruto sneering at him.

'_Ah. Hn. Dobe, better tell me what u want be4 I change my mind.'_

His cell phone immediately vibrated twice a few seconds after Sasuke sent his reply. '_WAIT!' _Sasuke hastily read the first of the two messages, smirking to himself.

'_Stand in 4 me at this gig I got down this new club. U can keep the pay. Me and the old perv got sum plans 2nite.' _The other had read.

Sasuke glared in annoyance. The old perv Naruto was probably referring to was the legendary author of the bestselling series of romantic and equally smutty books entitled _'Icha Icha Paradise', _Jiraiya. The perverse author had recently taken Naruto under his wing, no doubt increasingly soiling the blonde's already dirtied thoughts. For all he knew, tonight they were going to spy on the poor ladies at the public onsen. At first, Jiraiya had wanted to take Sasuke as his apprentice, stating that his looks could lure the attention of gorgeous women he could never get on his own. But due to Sasuke's rumoured asexuality, he convinced his dense cousin, Naruto instead.

Shivering at the thought of what might have been, Sasuke decided to ignore the message, his earlier promise to be cordial to his cousin long forgotten. He was not going to do another lame chore for Naruto again ever since his experience at the Laundromat about two weeks ago.

Never again.

But before Sasuke could even go about his day, pretending that his conversation with Naruto had never occurred, his cell phone vibrated again.

'_Oh btw, I hope u didn't smash Roger like u did ur old alarm clock.'_The message read.

Sasuke's eyes widened and he immediately directed his attention to the wall where he threw the alarm clock at, this morning. The alarm clock, sure enough, was shaped (or used to be) like an orange frog and it was broken in pieces from the force of the throw. Naruto had lent it to Sasuke yesterday after he 'accidentally' threw his old one at the wall, much like what he had done to Roger this morning. Given the situation, Sasuke would have freaked out and tried to salvage the remnants of the item. But he most definitely could not.

You see, he was Uchiha Sasuke, after all.

However, he did know that Naruto was attached to that alarm clock even more than a man should be, to an inanimate object. He had always referred it to his 'lucky frog,_ Roger_.'

And at this moment, Roger did not look lucky at all.

'_Ribbit.'_ Sasuke sighed as he poked and prodded at the broken object. It was only then that his cell phone went vibrating once again. Grunting, he flipped open the cell and read the new text that Naruto sent him.

'_There's a suit on my bed and a name tag. Arrive by 6.30 p.m. Club's called the 'Devil's Pitcher'. It's opening nite, 2nite. :D' _

And so, with the weight of the world (or more specifically, guilt over a broken frog) on his shoulders, Uchiha Sasuke grudgingly paced to his cousin's room, wore the suit that was placed on his bed, pinned on Naruto's name tag on, and made his way on his bike to the club with the idiotic name.

He was, officially, Naruto's bitch for the night.

* * *

'_Kami must have a sense of humour.' _He thought to himself as he looked on upon the long line of visitors that bothered to show up at the grand opening of the club. What was the club's name again?

He brushed the thought off and looked down at the name tag pinned onto his left chest.

'Bouncer:** U. Naruto.**' It read and Sasuke immediately regretted his decision to show up at the club.

Here he was, dressed in clothing that did not belong to him, wearing a name tag that did not spell his name, and standing in for a job that was not his to begin with. Now why did this situation seem eerily familiar? He had to literally push back all pieces of memories regarding orange bras and cornrows.

'_At least I'm keeping the pay for tonight.'_ Sasuke tried to console himself.

It was hard to admit, but Sasuke really needed the money. With Mr. Tobi and his men practically hunting him down for his unsettled debt, he knew he had to find a stable job with a good pay very soon. Looking back, Sasuke had never even seen the man himself. When he had arranged for a loan from the guy, Sasuke had only dealt with a middle man.

All too soon, the painful memories of why he had to borrow the sum of money from Mr. Tobi came flooding into his head. He suppressed them once again after a few seconds of reliving his past. Sasuke knew his scars were far from being healed. His memories were like a broken nerve that clenched at his soul whenever he thought of them. So he pushed them at the back of his mind, like many times before, and put up a cold, emotionless front. He was better off not dealing with them.

For now, he focused on the task at hand.

And that was, opening doors for scantily clad females and rowdy males who were only there for the chicks. Oh! And the alcohol, of course.

Sasuke rolled his eyes for the millionth time tonight, making way and opening the door for a group of girls that looked young enough to be 16. Sasuke didn't bother to check their ID. They were all probably fake anyways, like the girls themselves. One by one, they entered the club, each of them blowing a kiss, sending a wink or a sultry smile at him before they disappeared into the mass of people inside. Inwardly groaning, he prayed for the night to go faster than usual.

But he knew that it was far from being possible, given that the long line in front reached probably halfway across the world. Frankly, Sasuke was bored. The only things keeping him company were his thoughts and the black walkie-talkie he was holding in his hand.

As if on cue, the device crackled and Sasuke immediately held it up to his ear. Sasuke found that it was hard to hear with the distasteful, loud music playing from inside the club.

"Naruto-san, you can let in five more people for the moment." Sasuke heard the owner of the club, a busty blonde named Tsunade, utter. Hearing the slight slur of her words, he figured she was a tad bit tipsy.

"Okay." Sasuke simply replied and let in five of the people waiting in line. He could care less that people thought he was Naruto. At least he could act even shittier than usual and people wouldn't pin it on him.

After a few moments, Sasuke was literally bored out of his wits. He decided that he would indulge himself in a silent guessing game. His dark eyes discretely glazed over the individuals standing in the line in front of him.

He then spotted a woman with bright pink hair a few meters back. She was donned in a short, hot pink bandage dress that matched her hair. Sasuke also noticed that she was swaying from side to side. She was already drunk before entering the club. Sasuke scoffed at this and began his guessing game_._

'_25 or...26? Permanent dependency on alcohol. Miserable. Out of work.' _Sasuke inwardly grinned to himself, knowing that his assumptions were no doubt, far from being true. But it pleased him.

Sasuke saw that she was not alone. Indeed, there was a blonde standing next to her, also clad in clubbing garb. Hers was a deep purple tube dress and she too, Sasuke observed, was as drunk as Pinkie over there.

'_26...definitely 26. Equally permanent dependency on alcohol. Single mother.' _His assumptions were getting more ludicrous. But he figured he didn't care.

Then, he saw Blondie making a grab at something, or was it _someone_? It was then that he noticed the small, petite woman standing beside the Blondie. He might have missed her as she was considerably shorter than the other two, even with the heels she was wearing. She had straight, dark-coloured hair that reached just past her shoulders and pale, creamy skin. Consequently, Sasuke wondered if her skin was as soft as it looked.

'_Where did that come from?'_ Sasuke immediately berated himself and swatted the uncharacteristic thought away. The distasteful perversity of Jiraiya and Naruto must be getting to him, he presumed.

However, he found that he was not able to tear his eyes away from her. The girl was wearing clothes that were more modest than the other two he observed earlier. It was a silver dress. He thought that the colour suited her skin perfectly. She also looked incredibly sober, but currently in distress as Blondie was continuously shaking her, practically yelling about shelves. The girl in distress was widening her eyes in horror as her face turned increasingly pink by the second.

Sasuke raised both his eyebrows, amused.

He had never seen someone blush as obviously as the girl, before.

He found her trait rather endearing. This was of course, a ridiculous fact, considering he did not know her at all.

All of the sudden, he saw Pinkie bend down and puke all over the side walk. This gathered a lot of attention from the people standing in the line as they harshly whispered to each other in annoyance and disgust.

And then it happened once more.

Yet again, the girl in silver had blushed, but now with much more ferocity than ever. Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows, deep in thought.

'_Is she sick?'_ He thought to himself.

Another crackle from the walkie-talkie in his hand snapped him out of his daze. He held the device up to his ear.

"Naaaaruuutooooo~ Bring in 3...errrr...5? oh, just let 10 people in right nowwww –hic!-" He heard Tsunade sing, drunker than ever.

"Whatever." Sasuke muttered and rolled his eyes in reply, subsequently letting in 10 people into the club. He sent a death glare to one of the girls he let in, who purposefully brushed her hand across his ass and she grimaced, darting into the club in fear.

'_Seriously, do I look like a fucking gigolo or something?'_ Sasuke fumed, running his hand through his hair. Frustrated, he directed his eyes upwards to the night sky, knowing that Naruto and Jiraiya were probably somewhere conducting their sexually-charged exploits.

Sasuke just hoped that it was not with each other. Last thing he needed was to live with someone who could potentially '_bat for the other team'_. And if there was anything he learnt about his looks, it would be that it appealed also to men.

He slightly loosened the troublesome tie he was using and sighed. He wanted...no, he needed to get out of here quick.

After a few more long periods of the same tedious work he had, which basically comprised of three actions: Listen to walkie-talkie, reply to walkie-talkie, and open the metal doors of the entrance, Sasuke closed his eyes and sighed loudly.

What Sasuke did not know was that his exasperation did not go unnoticed from the person who was currently standing in front of the line.

"Are you alright?" A soft, melodious voice asked in concern.

Caught off-guard, Sasuke opened his eyes and what he saw was honestly surprising to say the least. His eyes were met with a pair of large, pearl-tinted eyes that were peering up at him from underneath a set of long delicate lashes. As expected, there was a slight dusting of pink on her cheeks. Sasuke stared at her plump, soft lips a little bit longer than he should have and when he realized this fact, his eyes immediately snapped back to her eyes once more.

He had not took notice of just how many people he had already let into the club but now, the girl in silver was standing in front of him with Blondie and Pinkie by her side. Sasuke cleared his throat and resumed his distant, aloof demeanour. But what he failed to notice was that he had not given a reply to the girl's question.

He then saw the girl squirm uncomfortably under his gaze as she pulled her eyes away, apparently finding the soles of her shoes much more interesting than him. Sasuke smirked at this, but only for awhile, as he detected the sight of the girl's two companions gaping and ogling at him.

Ah yes, they were _those_ kind of females.

But the girl in silver, Sasuke observed, was different. She had yet to openly ogle, salivate, or made a pass at him. Though it was still early to peg her as different. For all he knew, she could be one of those girls who secretly worshipped him and kept pictures of him plastered all over her bedroom walls.

Ah yes, perhaps she was one of_ those_.

But for some reason, Sasuke has a feeling that she was different from the rest.

It was after detecting this strange feeling that he mentally smacked himself in the head. He was having personal thoughts and _feelings_ over a person he just met, for Kami's sake! Granted, the girl in the silver dress who was standing mere inches away from him was _peculiar_ looking, but he had no reason to be flustered in her presence. Flustered? Uchiha Sasuke never got flustered! He reasoned that it was the stress of standing outside at the same spot in a fitting suit for what felt like eternity now that was toying with his mind and emotions. But now that he thought of it, that reasoning made him sound kind of sissy.

He grunted in annoyance at the inability of the voices in his head to keep quiet. This action, however, caused the girl in silver to jump in surprise, her eyes still locked onto the tips of her matching silver stilettos.

And before Sasuke could even get amused by her reaction, which might have given passage to more bombarding trail of thoughts, he heard two pitchy voices utter in perfect sync, "Why are you staring at our Hime?"

There was an awkward silence that took place right after, in which the 'princess' in mention turned a darker shade of red (which amused Sasuke once more, if it were even possible), and Blondie and Pinkie both smiled at him like they knew he had an agenda.

Which, Sasuke can assure you, he did not. So he glared at the two with killer intent.

As if fate intervened, Sasuke heard the familiar crackle of the walkie-talkie.

"Three peopleee, Narutoooo~ Threeeee~" Tsunade sang out from the end of the receiver. Sasuke wondered just how many bottles of sake did she have to drink already.

Nonchalantly ignoring Blondie and Pinkie's question, he stepped aside and pushed open the heavy metal doors of the club. He merely stared at the three of them with disinterest and motioned them to move inside with a nod of his head.

'_Saved by the bell.'_ Sasuke had quietly thought to himself.

Casting a glance at the 'princess' once more, who had raised her light-hued eyes to meet with his dark ones, Sasuke smirked.

_'23. Innocent and shy. Kindergarten teacher.' _

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata was feeling uncomfortably awkward, to say the least. She had yet to forgive herself for what she had done earlier. For some reason, she had decided against the small voice in her head and had willingly asked a random stranger, who happened to be the most attractive man she had ever seen, a question that sounded completely personal and way out of line. But she found that he looked so tired and disgruntled, his perfectly arched eyebrows permanently furrowed as he shut his eyes and his strong jaw tightly clenched that she could not resist the feeling of concern bubbling up inside her.

Her cousin, Hyuuga Neji, who was more of an over-protective brother than a cousin, had often reprimanded her on her softness. He would always comment that her kindness made way for people to take advantage and walk all over her. But Hinata could care less about what Neji had told her too many times before.

And before she could even stop herself, she had timidly asked, "Are you alright?" to the man in front of her.

As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she felt like bolting away from where she stood. It was a good thing that her two best friends did not notice anything amiss, as they were still in their trans-like state in the presence of the bouncer standing in front of them. But the bouncer, to which her question was addressed to, had noticed. And when he immediately opened his eyes and looked at her, his eyebrows slightly raised and expression softening, Hinata found that she was frozen in place.

Kami, he was beautiful.

She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks and Hinata immediately cursed inwardly. But still, her eyes were transfixed on the bouncer's handsome face and she saw his eyes moving downwards for a split second before it snapped back up to meet her eyes once more.

The man cleared his throat and shoved his free hand into the pocket of his slacks. His face returned its' usual expression, eyebrows slightly furrowed and jaws tightly clenched. But this time, his dark, intense eyes were looking straight at her.

And that was when the feeling of uncomfortable awkwardness hit her like a speeding train. He had yet to reply her and instead, he was blatantly staring down at her (as he was significantly taller than her miniature built), looking like he had something to say but decided against it.

She squirmed quite obviously under his strong, unmoving gaze and consequently directed her line of vision to the tips of her silver stilettos. She tried to focus her attention on her sore feet and how she knew that she would trip and fall at least once on this night, as she did every time she made a choice to wear heels.

However, Hinata's attempt to ignore the man in front of her seemed futile, as she could still feel his eyes on her. All of the sudden, she heard him grunt and this had caused her to jump in surprise. Hinata convinced herself that she was not the reason he grunted and that it was probably his way of showing that he was annoyed at Sakura and Ino who were by now, embarking on a series of full-fledged ogling and drooling. Why on earth did she agree to go out on this train-wreck of a girl's night out with Sakura and Ino again? Oh yeah, she had _not _agreed. She was _forced_ to.

"Why are you staring at our Hime?" Hinata suddenly heard her two best friends utter in perfect unison.

'_Crap.'_ Her best friends had just revealed her childish pet name they had made up for her since grade school to a perfect stranger. As if she wasn't already embarrassed enough, Hinata blushed furiously.

A long period of silence fell upon them. Hinata bit her lip in agitation as she knew that her best friends were giving the bouncer their mischievous smiles again and she could already feel the beaming deadly aura that was seeping out from man in mention.

As if the heavens heard her desperate plea for help, Hinata heard a slight crackling sound coming from the device the bouncer was holding with his other hand. He held it up to his ear and proceeded to move aside and push open the metal doors to the club.

He then stared back at the three of them and motioned them to move in with a slight nod of his head. Hinata slowly raised her eyes back up, only to find that the bouncer was staring at her again with the most peculiar expression.

When their eyes met, his handsome face broke into a teasing smirk.

Hinata tore her eyes away and immediately nudged her motionless friends with her elbows. As the three of them walked towards the opening of the doors, what Hinata had failed to notice was the blocky marble door threshold on the floor.

And with Hinata, not noticing anything solid or slippery on the floor while she was walking was a recipe for disaster.

As expected, when Sakura and Ino went ahead of her and glided gracefully (despite their state of intoxication) over the threshold, Hinata had wobbled clumsily in her heels and tripped over the blasted thing.

But when Hinata shut her eyes and braced herself for the painful impact, she found that it did not come as anticipated.

Instead, she felt her body being enveloped by a pair of strong arms as she was being pulled back into something warm, or rather,_ someone_. Instantly, the scent of light-smelling cologne invaded her senses and she alarmingly opened her eyes to find that she was in the soft, warm embrace of the handsome bouncer. She had to practically crane her neck upwards to look at his face.

As if they had just realised the position they were in, Hinata let out a strangled yelp, jumping away from the man as far as possible and he immediately dropped his arms to his sides.

And before Hinata could even conjure up an apology for troubling him or a 'thank you' for saving her, the bouncer merely sighed and ran his hand through his thick, dark locks. His action caused all the words in Hinata's mind to disappear, leaving only an empty, vacant space where her logic used to be. She bit her lip again and slightly smiled. Hinata saw the bouncer quirk his eyebrow in return.

"Watch out." He then uttered in his deep, silky voice, sending shivers up and down her spine.

After a split second, he had shut the doors of the entrance and Hinata finally realized that she was already in the club, still staring at the closed metal doors.

The smell of alcohol and sweat was brimming in the air and she found herself yearning for the scent of that particularly sweet, light cologne again. And in that moment, the loud deafening music playing in the club was drowned out by the still, small voice in her heart that was filled with gratitude for what the bouncer had done for her.

Silently, even though she knew he could not hear her, she softly uttered two simple words.

"Thank you."

* * *

**A/N: **Phew! There was so much fluff in this chapter that I had to practically immerse myself all over again in my past experiences of high school crushes and what not. :) Keep reading if you love the fluff or in fact, is in dire need of even **more!**

By the way, I sincerely do not think that there is a guy as perfectly handsome as Sasuke in this fic. He's just so...GAH. Yeah. That's the word.

GAH!


End file.
